The author thinks it is important that Australians learn a foreign language, but not every single person needs to.

The government wants 40% of students learning a language in year 12 by 2024. This won’t happen as learning a language is not an easy thing to do, it requires a lot of time and investment

Language Features: Language ChangeCourse Aspects: Unit 4 - AoS 1 - Language Variation in Australian Society: how and why Australian English varies according to culture, including Aboriginal English and ethnolects, attitudes within society to different varieties of English, including prescriptivism and descriptivism

Personal Opinion: I think that learning a language would be very important for people so they can go out and experience the world, it would be much more fun to know what another person is saying and to be able to reply to them if they asked you a question in their language. I personally want to learn Japanese.

“Quotes”:

“We don’t need everyone to do Asian languages; we need a spread of languages.”

“If you look across the world in English-speaking countries they really struggle to get languages taught, but in non-English speaking countries there is an immense amount of language, often including English.”

“So while English does have this ability, the problem that this produces is a laziness and complacency about language studies.”

Iggy Azalea changed her accent to american when rapping, so not to be ridiculed by the American markets

Azalea’s Australian accent represents a girl from the bush, whereas when she ran away to the US, she learnt to rap in an American one.

Australian rappers exaggerate their own accent when rapping, making it broader in order to show solidarity **interesting**

Language Features: Broad, General, Cultivated EnglishCourse Aspects: Unit 4 - AoS 1 - Language Variation in Australian Society: features of Broad, General and Cultivated Australian English accents, the role of language in constructing national identity

Personal Opinion: I think that Iggy can do whatever she likes as long as people enjoy the music she makes. People think that rapping is only about the voice but it is much more about the lyrics and the beat to which the voice is rapping on. All rappers can find a certain path that they can take with their voices.

“Quotes”:

“The winners, a little-known rapper-and-DJ duo called Koolism, dedicated the award to “all the Australians who keep it real”. “Be yourselves!” the DJ smirked. “Enough of that American-wannabe trash!” “

“Azalea’s speaking voice presents a girl from the Australian bush, while her rap delivery is more gangsta Nanny Fine.”

“the “accent debate” was deadly serious: should you rap in a fake American accent, or in an Australian one, which was distracting?”

“The Australian accent evolved among the children of convicts: a tough, resilient underclass which is still reflected in the predominantly white, male Australian hip-hop scene today.”

“The irony is that a 2003 study found that Australian rappers actually exaggerate their own accent when rapping — making it broader in order to show solidarity with their peers.”

Personal Opinion: I think that Britain and America should both find teachers for languages all over the world for children to learn in schools, this will help provide more jobs for foreign citizens and help other people learn languages to travel and see the world, much like my other article, but less to do with Australia

“Quotes”:

“…discovered “strong evidence of a growing deficit in foreign language skills at a time when globally the demand for languages is expanding” in the UK.”

“”By sitting on our linguistic laurels we disadvantage the United Kingdom – and it’s exactly the same argument in the US,” he said. Young people from other countries could now offer fluency in English, plus their native language. “They are ahead of the game.””

“”Language isn’t just a bridge between cultures,” said Pauline Yu, president of the American Council of Learned Societies. “It’s a gateway into a culture.””

“In America, demand for languages other than English had increased so dramatically that the US education system was now “failing to provide a critical skill to the majority of this country’s youth”.”

Teachers are writing nonsense on school reports to add bulk to them so parents would believe that their child was doing well.(?)

This may be because they are too afraid to say how their child is actually doing due to abuse from parents.

Actually making some parents upset or worried from not hearing how their child is ACTUALLY doing.

Language Features: Increasing social distance, elevated word choices, school jargon
Course Aspects: Unit 3 - AoS 2: Formal Language - The relationship between the context and the features of language in formal texts, the role of discourse features and lexical choice in creating textual cohesion and coherence.

Personal Opinion: I think that this article is brilliant, it really shows what I would like to change when I become a teacher. Some (not all (miss…)) teachers just copy and paste the exact same report for each student in their class, and I’ve even had a teacher say that he did it. A student should be given the teachers true feelings on how they’re doing in class, and if in primary school, a parent should be given the fullest explanation on how their child is doing in class. This should change in the future, and I hope I can witness this change in the future.“Quotes”:

“I am not afraid of hearing my child is doing poorly, I’m afraid of NOT hearing it, of it being lost in the impenetrable gibberish of half-term assessment that at times make James Joyce seem a study in clarity.”

“My son’s teachers could write that my kid is “showing a slightly heightened propensity to take an active role in removing the outer layer of stray felines” and I would miss it, such is the onslaught on nonsense language I am being fed.”

“This ridiculous language has had the desired effect, I no longer really care to read it, so I rarely judge the people involved.”

Personal Opinion: In my own opinion, emoji’s aren’t useful at all, they are only used to convey someones emotions, and even then they sometimes do not do that at all, there is an emoji of a poop. Who would want to use an emoji of a poop to convey their emotions. It just doesn’t make sense. Basically the younger generation is so into this new ‘language’ that the older generation want in on it too, and are ruining their own language to try and fit in. I don’t like how they are becoming a part of everyday messaging, when a smiley face 🙂 was all that was needed to say you were happy, not 100 different faces of different animals for it. I do, however, believe that the author is very against children and thinks that they are annoying when they use emojis, and he shouldn’t be. It just doesn’t make sense.“Quotes”:

“It’s not an objection to brevity or humour, and no sensible person really sees a new range of possible emoji as a sign of the eschaton. It’s that they aren’t much use.”

“The brutal empty-frame of SMS can lead to misreading where irony is concerned, true, but a little symbol at the end seems like rather thin soup in a world where we have so much language at our disposal.”

“I don’t want to come across here as a linguistically conservative, humourless and miserable curmudgeon.”

“Emoticons seem pedestrian and unimaginative next to this level of innovation.”

Name: The rise and fall of Australian slang
Date: 11/6/14
Author: Jon Donnison

Key Ideas:

Australian English has the strongest history of slang in the world

Television played a big part in Australias slang and jargon

But slang is slowly dying out as more and more Australians think it is ‘uncool’ as politicians are using it to seem ‘cool’ and to get more votes

Language Features: Jargon, Australian SlangCourse Aspects: Unit 4 - AoS 1 - Language Variation in Australian Society: features of Broad, General and Cultivated Australian English accents, how Australian English varies according to geography, including national and regional variation, the role of language in constructing national identity. (there are many more)

Personal Opinion: I believe that Australian slang is dying out in more city/suburban areas around Australia, but in more rural areas, there would be many more broad speakers of English that use these types of slang more often. The politicians use of this slang is (in my opinion) to get all of the oldies voting for them instead, as there are much more of them than there are of the 20-40 age.